National Museum in Cairo at center of political stand off

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Earlier this evening, CNN and Al Jazeera reported that Cairo's Egyptian Museum, also called the National Museum, had been in danger from fire once again. It remains near a stand off among political protesters for and against the government of Hosni Mubarak.

Fires were burning around the museum and molotov cocktails have been thrown in the direction of the museum, CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen reported.

"A standoff is taking place in front of Egypt's national museum, where rocks and petrol bombs are flying," reports Al Jazeera at its live blog from the scene.

"The rain of rocks back and forth at the museum is constant," reported Al Jazeera producer, formerly of Wisconsin, Evan Hill via Twitter. "The background drum beat on metal never stops."

The Egyptian Museum, in the heart of Cairo, is the site of ongoing political demonstrations and home to some of the world's most precious antiquities, an estimated 120,000 artifacts, including treasures from the tomb of King Tutankhamen.

As you read at Art City last week, the museum was previously in danger from fires. The museum was also broken into on Friday but the institution escaped what could have been a disasterous fate, the kind of looting that took place in Iraq's equivalent museum in 2003, for instance. Some say such looting is unlikely in Egypt, where antiquities are such a beloved aspect of the nation's patrimony. In fact, protesters created a human shield around the museum last week.

Also, the culprits who broke into the museum, broke cases inside and stole obejcts, all while possibly looking for gold, were caught and quickly escorted out. Some stolen objects were returned to the streets later, according to a New York Times article on Monday. Here also is Time magazine's thorough reporting on the break in.

I would recommend following coverage of this atHyperallergic, where editor Hrag Vartanian has been curating coverage from Twitter, CNN, Al Jazeera and other sources as well as any publication I've seen. Here also is my Twitter list of mostly journalists that I am following and some amazing photographs taken in recent days.

About Mary Louise Schumacher

Mary Louise Schumacher is the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic. She writes about culture, design, the urban landscape and Milwaukee's creative community. Art City is her award-winning cultural page and a community of more than 20 contributing writers and artists. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

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